Key Highlights
- But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade. In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
- But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same.
- By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found.
- PRRI’s findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned. During the 2024 election, abortion was seen as the Democrats’ strongest issue, after the 2022 overturning of Roe sparked a wave of deeply unpopular state-level abortion bans.
- Kamala Harris put abortion rights at the heart of her presidential campaign, while Democratic Senate candidates and Super Pacs poured an astounding $175m into abortion-related TV ads – far more than any other issue.
